Missouri winters. Sigh. Some are so long and frozen you feel as though they may never lift and others are so fleeting you wonder if it was ever really here at all. Some are just a huge mix of confusion. This year had been mild with cold snaps. By that I mean blistering cold for several days and then tolerable temps for longer periods. Flip flops one day and three loads of firewood needed the next. I've been wrestling the flu since October. Most of my days feel like the following image looks. Lifeless, colorless, and dreary. 

But thankfully, there's always a bright side, even when skies are gray. 

Everything must eat weather the sun shines or not, and the birds come out in droves here in the winter. Hanging out my bedroom window with my camera always proves productive. (Dropping nuts, cereal, and bread of out my window, frequently, almost insures I will see a doll or two like this, daily.)

Enter one of my resident female, Northern Cardinals.

From a distance they look mostly gray. What a pleasant surprise to see one close up and realize they are really full of color. 

She looked through the sleet for 20 minutes filling up with seed. There's Millet under all those pellets of ice. The flocks out here love it. I throw it out for the smaller birds but the big ones love it just the same. 

Then I just happen to notice my neighbor's place and realize how much I miss you, Red. 

Be safe.